Jean-Philippe de Bourbon-Navarre

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The Bourbons of Bhopal in India claim their descent from Jean-Philippe de Bourbon-Navarre (John Philip of Bourbon-Navarre). This figure may have no historical basis. According to family tradition, arrived in the court of Mugal emperor Akbar in 1560, having endured hair-raising and exciting adventures involving pirates and kidnapping, including an attempt to sell him in a slave market in Cairo.

His identity is unclear. He could hardly be a be a scion of the Navarre branch of Bourbon, which begins with Henri IV of France, still a child when Jean Philippe reached India.

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[edit] Criticism of the claim of Bourbon descent

In fact, Henry IV had no nephews, and no Bourbon cousins from Navarre. The origins of John Philip, who is unknown to contemporary history, are confused, being variously attributed to the Bourbon-Busset family, an apparently illegitimate line of the Bourbons, and to Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, whose family tradition claims that he did not die in the siege of Rome in 1527, but instead fleeing to India and producing John Philip in a liaison with a Mongol princess.

It has been claimed that it is impossible for the family to be legitimate descendants of the House of Bourbon, or to have any claim to the French throne. The character of John Philip does not appear in any official family tree of the Bourbon family, nor would any Bourbon cousin of Henry IV have a claim to the throne greater than that of Henry or his descent.

[edit] Historical context

In the 19th century, traveller and photographer Louis Rousselet proposed in Le Fils du Connétable (The Constable’s Son, 1882) that he could be a secret son of the Constable of Bourbon [1]. He had visited the family in India and got struck by their "European features"[2]. In the 20th century, Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark (Michel de Grèce) adopted this view enthusiastically and conducted some researches with the hope of proving it true. There are different versions of this hypothesis. One has the Constable survive the sack of Rome and eventually marry a Mugal princess named Alaïque, Jean Philippe’s mother. Another possible candidate is a member of the Bourbon-Busset branch, reported lost at sea in 1580[3]. None of these theories can be seriously documented.

Jean Philippe de Bourbon's supposed descendants moved to Bhopal in 1775[4] and entered the service of the royal family, becoming the second most important family in Bhopal[5]. Two of the most prominent members are Salvador III de Bourbon (~1830), chief general of Bhopal, and Balthazar de Bourbon († 1879), minister and regent. After Indian independence, the new Indian state abolished the old jagirs (land entitlements) in 1948, and royal and noble status in 1971. Deprived of any privileges, the family joined the ranks of the working bourgeoisie.

There are books about the family : Les Bourbons de l'Inde (2003), written by Lucien Jailloux, is based on the memoirs of Salvadore of Bourbon[6] ; Le Rajah Bourbon (2007) is an historical novel written by Prince Michael of Greece[7].

[edit] Genealogies

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Bourbons
  2. ^ India and Its Native Princes: Travels in Central India and in the Presidencies of Bombay and Bengal By Louis Rousselet, Charles Randolph Buckle, 1875 ; mentioning Balthazar's wife Elizabeth : I was at once struck by her appearance, which is evidently European.
  3. ^ Père Anselme. History of the royal house of France ; Lawrence Ober. Bourbons in India. GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives.
  4. ^ Indian lays claim to 'Duke of France'. April 15, 2007.
  5. ^ Hayat-i-Qudsi: Life of the Nawab Gauhar Begum Alias the Nawab Begum Qudsia, of Bhopal By W. S. Davis, 1918
  6. ^ "LES BOURBONS DE L'INDE" de Salvadore de Bourbon et Lucien Jailloux, BOIN, 2003
  7. ^ Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark, Le Rajah de Bourbon, Jean-Claude Lattès, march 2007

[edit] External links

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